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Simon Property Group, owner of the Tacoma Mall, is partnering with Toronto company Green Growth Brands to bring CBD kiosks to 108 locations, according to a March 5 CBS News report. Tacoma Mall is one of them.

And a new CBD store, True Healings CBD, recently opened in Tacoma at 6409 Sixth Ave. in the shopping center next to Grocery Outlet.

Soon after, it sold out of many of its products, and it took nearly three weeks to restock, according to owner Lisa Tompkins.

Many of her suppliers at that time “were pretty new,” to that level of demand, Tompkins recalled.

Since then, “business has been great,” Tompkins said, with customers coming from as far as Ocean Shores and out of state. “We’re not doing as much educating with individual customers, but people still want to know more about the products.”

The store is set to go live soon with an online store as well as co-host a seminar to reach more customers locally.

The store at 12th Street and Union Avenue features different brands focusing on items made with hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD). Its products include tinctures, capsules, muscle freeze, balms, lotions, protein powder and CBD-infused teas.

Bright Day is set to host a CBD seminar along with co-sponsor Elixinol, a CBD hemp oil company, at Tacoma’s STAR Center in April.

Speaking at the seminar will be physician Philip Blair, a retired U.S. Army colonel based in Vancouver, Washington, and a clinical adviser for CBD company Elixinol.

“I wanted to do a general education with someone really knowledgeable,” Tompkins said.

“They typically come in here with a lot of questions, and that’s great.”

While she does not offer medical advice, Tompkins will help customers learn about products that have gotten positive feedback from other clients, similar to the advice given at any supplement store.

The industry became supercharged by Congress with passage of the 2018 farm bill, which helped clear a legal business path for industrial hemp and its derivatives.

As a result, hemp bills have recently passed in the House and Senate of Washington’s Legislature, lifting restrictions on where hemp can be grown, seeds obtained and how harvests are used, including in the production of CBD oil. The bills still need to be reconciled before heading to the governor’s desk.

Medical research lags as the industry continues to expand and grow.

In December the U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration issued a statement saying the agency continued “to be concerned at the number of drug claims being made about products not approved by the FDA that claim to contain CBD or other cannabis-derived compounds.”

Meanwhile, Tompkins hopes the upcoming seminar will bring knowledge to people beyond their own internet research.

“We’re hoping for a good turnout. I think it would be nice for those who might be interested in CBD, if they don’t know a lot about it,” she said. “Maybe coming to our store is too much for them but going to this event might be a better answer for them.”